Establishing a DAO Events Budget for 2025

Key Changes Made (October 10th)

After further consideration and taking into account the outcome/discussion from the ArbitrumDAO Off-site Snapshot, the quoted group has decided to remove the planned delegate offsite at Token2049 Dubai. This will leave more funds available for ecosystem growth events. Delegate offsites can still be proposed by individuals or event service providers and pull funds from the established budget.

Key Changes Made (October 1st)

This change was made to ensure everyone is aware that the AF/OCL will be involved throughout this process to better align the DAO’s various contributors on a unified goal and overall events strategy.

The 3 members of this group will lean on OCL and the Arbitrum Foundation to ensure that any events organized by the DAO are aligned with the broader ecosystem of contributors, work towards a unified message/brand, and are synergistic with events led by the Foundation and OCL.

We updated the Snapshot voting criteria to better account for changes to the votable token supply rather than setting an arbitrary quorum. The language has been changed throughout the proposal to support this change.

passes a Snapshot vote that garners at least 3% of the votable token supply with a simple majority For/Abstain

This language was removed, as the ADPC looks poised to recieve funding after a succesful Snapshot vote. If the ongoing Tally vote contradicts this, we will again adjust the language of this proposal accordingly.

Note that if the ADPC is not re-elected, this proposal may be updated to include pay for the ADPC. We will clearly articulate that change if it is required prior to moving on to a Snapshot vote.

The following language was added to support @krst and @Sinkas suggestion of attempting to get protocols building on Arbitrum aligned with the overall events strategy. While this proposal is primarily aiming to earmark an events budget for the next year in order to enable the DAO to move more nimbly while also getting better pricing, we are excited about this idea.

It may also be possible for protocols within the Arbitrum ecosystem to partake in events that are put together with funds from this budget. For example, if a community member has an idea for the DAO to have representation at RustConf with an emphasis on showcasing some of the products built with Stylus, Entropy, Disruption Joe, and the ADPC could reach out to protocols building on Stylus to attend the event and showcase their products. Protocols could be expected to “bolster” the events budget. E.g., the DAO spends $100K while 2 Stylus projects put up $10K each to sit at the same booth. This increases the total budget by $20K at no additional cost to the DAO, and these two protocols could showcase their products in a shared booth with Arbitrum branding. This is just one example of how this could look, with the exact structures managed on a case-by-case basis.

The following language was added to the proposal to address some of the concerns around measurable KPIs.

It is expected that the contributor requesting a specific event is tasked with defining the measurable KPIs. The DAO will be tasked with deeming a specific events proposal worthwhile via Snapshot, and we encourage delegates to hold these authors to a high standard when it comes to measuring a given event’s impact and how it pushes Arbitrum’s mission forward.

Other minor changes were made to this proposal, but none of which were structural changes. A majority of the small changes were made to reassure community members that the AF and OCL will be involved throughout this process to ensure there are no “competing events” within the Arbitrum community at the same place.

Abstract

To ensure Arbitrum’s continued presence at the industry’s most prominent events, and to enable the DAO to host in-person initiatives to accelerate collaboration and increase efficiency of operations, we (Entropy Advisors, the ADPC, and Disruption Joe) would like to earmark a budget for events for 2025 and take lead on running ongoing RFPs to satisfy the DAOs event demands. The 3 members of this group will lean on OCL and the Arbitrum Foundation to ensure that any events organized by the DAO are aligned with the broader ecosystem of contributors, work towards a unified message/brand, and are synergistic with events led by the Foundation and OCL.

Our proposed Events strategy should focus on 2 key categories:

  1. Delegate Gatherings aimed at streamlining operations through in-person meetups such as a delegate retreat.
  2. Ecosystem Growth Events to foster innovation and community engagement, ideally coinciding with other major crypto conferences (specifically ETHDenver, Bitcoin 2025: Las Vegas, EthCC, among other potential events) at the same location. These events can include, but are not limited to:
  • Virtual hackathons
  • Non-crypto conference presence (RustConf, CES, etc.)
  • In-person hackathons
  • Side events
  • Sponsorships of major events
  • Arbitrum Days around the world (not just EthCC)
  • Educational workshops (Stylus & Orbit)

The selection of event provider(s) will follow a two-step process: Together with the ADPC and Disruption Joe, we will gauge community sentiment/attendance levels regarding certain events. If there is consensus to put on a certain event but there is no PM/event coordinator to lead the effort, the group will procure, select, and support service providers to make the vision a reality. It is highly likely the OCL or the Arbitrum Foundation will lead many of these events, which is made apparent by the preliminary schedule proposed below. Alternatively, if an events provider comes to the DAO with a proposal for an event that passes a Snapshot vote that garners at least 3% of the votable token supply with a simple majority For/Abstain, the funds for that proposal will come from the 2025 events budget brought forth in this proposal.

We propose the earmarking of $1.5M USD to fund this initiative, with any unused funds at the end of 2025 to be returned to the DAO treasury. 4M ARB will be sent to a Foundation-controlled address to be liquidated into stablecoins, with any excess ARB immediately returned to the DAO treasury and the stablecoins to an MSS-controlled address. The ADPC, Entropy, and Disruption Joe will be waiving payment to get this stood up, but we expect this initiative to fall under the OpCo once it becomes fully operational. We also envision a dedicated employee to lead the DAO’s event strategy within the OpCo, so this is more of an effort to get the ball rolling so we are properly prepared for 2025. We plan to have the OpCo established in mid 2025, and once an events coordinator is employed by this entity, the funds will be transferred to the OpCo while Entropy, the ADPC, and Disruption Joe will be relieved of their duties thereafter.

Motivation

Events play a crucial role in strengthening the Arbitrum community and brand, attracting more users and developers to the ecosystem, expediting DAO initiatives by facilitating in-person collaboration, and providing avenues for alliance with other partners within the industry. While the Questbook program has done an excellent job in ensuring the Arbitrum brand is represented at smaller conferences across multiple regions, the DAO does not currently have a dedicated plan or budget for events. Larger Arbitrum events, such as Arbitrum Day, are left to the Arbitrum Foundation or Offchain Labs to organize. The DAO certainly appreciates what the Foundation and OCL do on the events front, but the DAO should serve a complementary role – which if enabled – will maximize Arbitrum’s overall ability to grow a healthy ecosystem and capture network effects in our speed and flexibility for deployment.

There is significant value in aligning on the scope/timing of hackathons, GovHack-type events, and major events presence (such as EthCC, DevCon, etc). For example, Stylus represents one of the most significant software upgrades in Arbitrum’s history – it could be wise for the DAO to ensure a Stylus-focused hackathon is planned for 2025 in an effort to bring more developers into our ecosystem and to improve dev tooling/infra. In addition to ecosystem events, it is very important for delegates to meet up in person at a regular cadence. We see how much more we can accomplish in-person time and time again, and we believe the DAO could formulate and execute on a grander strategy if these delegate offsites were formally planned/coordinated.

Hosting events requires substantial upfront time and capital, typically involving 4-6 months of planning and $25-100k in down payments for venues, travel, accommodations, catering, and other expenses. Planning and funding events on a case-by-case basis are impractical due to the lead time and the lengthy DAO voting process. Recently, the DAO approved $309k to host an event at EthCC in Brussels. However, the proposal was not executed on-chain until approximately five weeks before the event. Hack Humanity, the entity behind the GovHack event, took on substantial risk by using its funds to secure a venue, caterers, and other necessities without a guarantee of DAO funding. Although Hack Humanity felt comfortable taking this risk due to previous collaboration with the DAO and assistance from Entropy Advisors, this upfront financial burden should not fall on service providers in the future. One off RFP processes would enable organizers to plan higher-quality events with the extra time & budget provided. Alternatively, any service provider can gauge DAO sentiment directly via snapshot, which will drastically reduce the burden of the Arbitrum DAO governance process put on service providers.

To ensure the Arbitrum DAO has the ability to represent itself at various events and to create new in-person experiences, we propose earmarking funds so this can be achieved in a streamlined manner. While we propose 3 core events in the section below, any DAO member can make a proposal to utilize these earmarked funds at any time. We are also happy to alter the below calendar in accordance with feedback received on the forum.

Proposed Industry Events for 2025, Q1&Q2

The above events were chosen based on the need to bolster Arbitrum’s presence at the industry’s top events. As mentioned above, the Questbook program has done an excellent job at making sure Arbitrum has a presence at smaller events across the globe. To date the events track has funded event initiatives in the following regions: Latam (8), Africa (6), India (4), APAC (4), and Europe (2).

There are also ample opportunities to fund events in the back half of 2025 that align with Arbitrum’s strategic objectives (Ex. RustConf, GamesCon, Solana Breakpoint). However, with the expectation that a more comprehensive events strategy will be rolled up into OpCo upon the hiring of a full time events coordinator, we felt it was better suited to only establish a rough strategy for the first half of 2025 while leaving the door open for other service providers and community members to bring forth their own ideas.

ETHDenver - February

ETHDenver is an Ethereum centric conference that has one of the largest attendee lists of any event throughout 2025. Arbitrum has historically had a presence here, but we would like to partner with OCL to bolster the DAO’s representation. We envision a very large floor space at ETHDenver (see photo below of Near’s booth at ETHDenver in 2024 for inspiration), with plenty of room for Arbitrum projects to showcase their products, delegates and other DAO contributors to talk to people who are interested in getting involved, and an area for more technical folks to ask OCL questions about the Arbitrum roadmap and tech upgrades. Last year, Arbitrum had a smaller 10x20 or 20x20 floor space at ETHDenver, but this year we want to go bigger. OCL will lead the charge on this front, but the ADPC, Disruption Joe, and Entropy can assist as needed and funnel ideas from the community to their team.

Screenshot 2024-08-22 at 1.15.50 PM

Bitcoin 2025: Las Vegas - May

The Bitcoin conference is the most widely attended conference in all of crypto, and is ofcourse a Bitcoin-focused event. However, as seen with the rise of “BTC L2s”, Ordinals/Runes/other inscriptions, etc, there is a growing appetite from developers, users, and VCs to build out more functionality on Bitcoin. Additionally, there is work being done to enable OP_CAT, which could enable trust minimized bridging of BTC to other chains. As such, we believe the Arbitrum DAO should have a presence here. There is no reason Orbit should not have a presence on Bitcoin, and the DAO recently signaled its support for Orbit deployments on alternative settlement layers via snapshot vote. Bitcoin has served as the “Gateway” for bringing new people onchain in the past, and we believe targeting Bitcoin supporters is a good way to onboard new users into the Arbitrum ecosystem. We would like to work with OCL on this event, similar to the ETHDenver event, but the ADPC, Disruption Joe, and Entropy can procure a service provider and act as the point of contact in case OCL does not have interest in partnering with the DAO on this event.

EthCC - July

EthCC, similar to ETHDenver, is one of the largest Ethereum-centric events of the year, and has historically been hosted in the EU. The event in 2025 is currently slated to take place in Cannes, France, but with the recent arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in France, this could potentially change. Nevertheless, this is an event that we believe the Arbitrum DAO should have a presence at, and we again suggest supporting OCL and the Arbitrum Foundation to put this event together. In the scenario that OCL/the Foundation does not want to work with the DAO on this initiative, the ADPC, Disruption Joe, and Entropy will procure a 3rd party organizer to manage this event and will be in attendance to ensure things go smoothly. We are hopeful that OpCo will be stood up by this time, so there is a strong possibility that this event will fall under its purview rather than the aforementioned individuals/entities.

Other Events:

We estimate the three events outlined above to cost somewhere in the range of $250-$400k, and would thus have a budget approved that is much higher than the actual outlays. We want to avoid scenarios where we are forced to overpay for event service providers, have a limited selection of service providers, or need to rush through the DAO process in order to meet deadlines for future events. Therefore, we are requesting a budget much larger than required so that if other community members wish to push forward an event, they can do so without having to go through the full governance process.

Instead, we suggest that anyone can put forth an idea for an event in the first half of 2025, but that it can pull from these pre-approved funds via a snapshot vote that must garner 3% of the votable token supply with a simple majority of votes in favor/abstain. From there, the ADPC, Entropy, and Disruption Joe can help procure service providers to put on the event, or the proposer themselves can serve as the project manager/event coordinator. This will cut down on the lead time to put on other events and give the DAO more negotiation power when organizing events on an expedited timeline. Some other events that we had envisioned include presence at non-crypto conferences such as RustConf or CES to attract new developers and users, virtual hackathons specifically focused on Stylus or Orbit with the help of a service provider like Buidlbox, ETHGlobal, etc. It is also important to note, that events with an expected cost under $50,000 should be routed through the Questbook program. The purpose of this proposal is to establish an events strategy for larger initiatives that require substantial funds and active project managers.

It may also be possible for protocols within the Arbitrum ecosystem to partake in events that are put together with funds from this budget. For example, if a community member has an idea for the DAO to have representation at RustConf with an emphasis on showcasing some of the products built with Stylus, Entropy, Disruption Joe, and the ADPC could reach out to protocols building on Stylus to attend the event and showcase their products. Protocols could be expected to “bolster” the events budget. E.g., the DAO spends $100K while 2 Stylus projects put up $10K each to sit at the same booth. This increases the total budget by $20K at no additional cost to the DAO, and these two protocols could showcase their products in a shared booth with Arbitrum branding. This is just one example of how this could look, with the exact structures managed on a case-by-case basis.

We want to emphasize the fact that excess funds will either be moved over to the OpCo once a dedicated events coordinator has been hired, or fully returned to the DAO by the end of 2025. We felt some of the other events required a full-time project manager to ensure they go smoothly, and we do not want to take on more than we can handle. However, by requesting more budget than we require, anyone in the community can take lead on an event if there is DAO support.

Specifications

In order to eliminate the potential for event overload, we are capping the number of delegate gatherings to two for the year - but are leaving the number of ecosystem growth events open-ended. These events should be planned in such a way that no two events align too closely with one another on dates, with the exception of delegate offsites which could coincide with an ecosystem growth event at a major crypto conference given the convenience of planning travel arrangements. While the primary goal of delegate offsites should be aligning ecosystem leaders and providing a dedicated place/time for more efficient in-person working hours, the ecosystem growth category is more vague in nature. However, all applicants should have clearly articulated goals for the events in line with the defined events strategy, i.e., driving the adoption of Stylus through a hackathon, generating thought-provoking governance proposals, or onboarding new people into the DAO similar to GovHack. Events brought forward by either an individual or service provider, must create a post-event impact report (example from Govhack Brussels) that includes a breakdown of actual costs. Service providers that are procured to execute on an event idea will also be required to provide a post-event impact report.

For concrete examples of how this could work, we can take a look at the 2 proposals for events currently on the forum. The GovHack Core proposal (which has since been rescinded) was brought forth by Hack Humanity, which serves as a great example of a scenario where the ADPC, Disruption Joe, and Entropy would not have been needed in the process at all. Hack Humanity could have taken their proposal to Snapshot, and because they were the service provider themselves, there was no need for any type of procurement process. If the GovHack Core proposal passed snapshot with 3% of the votable token supply with a simple majority of votes in favor/abstain, the funds would be sent from the 2025 events budget (this proposal) and Hack Humanity could have begun their planning. This would eliminate the ~4-week onchain voting process and potentially make it possible to put something together for DevCon in Bangkok in just ~2 months.

This is a prime example of how earmarking an events budget will enable the DAO to move more nimbly. Please note that this proposal is only for 2025, so the previous example is only provided for illustrative purposes. However, it is quite possible that the DAO would rather fund GovHacks on an as-needed/case-by-case basis rather than a whole year, or even open up the event type to other service providers to get new actors involved or potentially lower the price.

In an earlier iteration of a proposal from @danielo, there was no defined offsite facilitator. This is an example of a proposal that did not specify the service provider, so the ADPC, Disruption Joe, and Entropy could have worked together in procuring the proper coordinator upon the proposal passing on Snapshot with 3% of the votable token supply and a simple majority of votes in favor/abstain. The procurement process should bring down overall costs by making the process competitive amongst service providers, and again reduces the lead time by foregoing the onchain Tally vote. Note that this is just an example for illustrative purposes.

It is expected that the contributor requesting a specific event is tasked with defining the measurable KPIs. The DAO will be tasked with deeming a specific events proposal worthwhile via Snapshot, and we encourage delegates to hold these authors to a high standard when it comes to measuring a given event’s impact and how it pushes Arbitrum’s mission forward.

Flow of Funds

To cover the $1.5M dollar-denominated expenses, 4M ARB would be earmarked and sent to an Arbitrum Foundation-controlled wallet, with funds liquidated into a preferred stablecoin and then sent to a MSS-controlled address .Surplus ARB will be sent back to the DAO Treasury following the liquidation. Entropy Advisors, Disruption Joe, and the ADPC will be the point of contact for the MSS chair to greenlight any queued transactions. No transactions will be signed without confirmations from all 3 entities/individuals. The MSS may send stablecoins back to the Arbitrum Foundation in order to pay service providers with fiat if required. Excess funds will either be moved over to the OpCo once a dedicated events coordinator has been hired, or fully returned to the DAO by the end of 2025.

Updates related to funds spent, upcoming events and relevant details, a place to provide feedback or recommendations, or any other communications will be posted to the ADPC update thread on the Arbitrum Forum. Alternatively, Entropy can post these to our updates thread on the Arbitrum Forum.

Steps to Implement and Timeline

  1. September 10th: “Establishing a DAO Events Budget for 2025” Forum post (4 weeks)
  2. October 10th: Snapshot Vote
  3. October 24th: Tally vote (If Snapshot passes and depending on feedback)
  4. November 11th: The ADPC, Disruption Joe, and Entropy Advisors can begin working with OCL/the AF and other individuals/SPs to ensure the events calendar brought forth comes to fruition. Dependent on the outcome of the Tally vote.

We expect this process to take about 2-3 months in its entirety to get underway, which will provide the DAO ample time to prepare for its 2025 events.

Overall Ask

The upfront ask to the DAO is $1.5M and the transfer of 4M ARB with the excess returned to the DAO post liquidation, but with just 3 ecosystem growth events outlined in this proposal, the entire budget will not be utilized. However, as mentioned earlier, earmarking these funds gives the DAO the ability to act more nimbly when there is an opportunity to host an event. This will result in the DAO getting better pricing from potential service providers while ensuring the service provider has ample time to do what they do best - organize great events. The DAO can clawback funds from the MSS at any time via a snapshot vote that garners 3% of the votable token supply with a simple majority of votes in favor/abstain.

9 Likes

interesting proposal… and interesting timing to post it as well… =)

first I think there is a clear advantage to have a set calendar of events Arbitrum will be represented at, so that attendees can plan ahead.
I also think this event strategy, with this calendar, needs to be coordinated with the Foundation, so that the events the Foundation has been doing, and will probably continue to do (will they?), complement and don’t overlap these ones in this initiative. the latest foundation transparency report has quite a big chunk of money for events in the first half of 2024, and with this proposal that amount should go down, I hope. that’s good!

Also, if we’re so concerned about bringing the costs down, we should consider that some of these events can be funded from other sources, such as sponsorships. but that can bring some conflicts of interest into play. such as if a service provider, or even a competitor would sponsor an Arbitrum event =)

I also think there should be a smaller fund, like a $100k fund in total, from this budget, that would be allocated, according to some methodology, to local smaller Arbitrum meetups. as in, if someone wants to organize a local Arbitrum meetup, they can get $1k / $2k for doing so or something.

And I’m not sure if this total amount, $1.5M, is enough to pull of the same quality of events that there have been in 2024. Just the 2 GovHacks were roughly 1/3 of that budget and I don’t think they are particularly expensive or wasteful of funds for the event quality they provided. The macro strategy for Arbitrum, should be to scale the events, as in, if overall, the DAO and the Foundation, have spent $1M in events in 2024, then in 2025, we should aim for at least double that. So $1.5M seems short to me.

so my main question is: why $1.5M in total? how did you arrive to that number?

3 Likes

also, isn’t it time to do an ArbitrumCon? like our own week long Arbitrum conference? Solana does it, NEAR does it, Ethereum obviously does it in multiple ways, Base kinda does it as well… maybe the event strategy we should be thinking about is to consider doing a major crypto event that is all about Arbitrum. not smaller Arbitrum events that piggyback on other industry events.

5 Likes

Interesting proposal and planning ahead of time. Can we be more innovate in budget allocation and utilization, like collabs, sourcing etc.?

2 Likes

Great idea of Arbitrum week.

3 Likes

Thanks for this. Just a few suggestions:

  1. Can we have an update on the budget utilization and achievement metrics from the events participated for 2024 till date?
  2. The budget for 2025 looks moderately high, can we find newer ways of collaboration and activations.
  3. The event scene has become overly crowded without knowing the ROI, if this helps showcase the ecosystem, then how and whom is important
2 Likes

proactively setting aside funds for events is definitely a good idea.

Major Events
The major events listed also mostly make sense, although we would suggest allocating less to BTC Vegas as Bitcoin in general is less “aligned” with ethereum, any expenditure there should probably be considered experimental.

Delegate Events
These seem like a good idea but given how decentralized arbitrum is maybe its better to just have a side event for delegates at major crypto conferences, rather than organize a separate event purely for delegates.

in addition to this, perhaps the delegate event budget coudl be used to allow for delegates to propose regional events, rather than trying to centrally organize events for a large group of delegates all over the world.

Oversight and Event management
Looking through entropy’s post history you guys seem like you guys are experienced governance participators and have experience coordinating events for Arbitrum.

We think this is a good proposal, although details around oversight could be fleshed out more, and the delegate events part of the proposal should probably be rethought out or revised.

The proposal is interesting, especially with the recent surge of event-related proposals. We have a few questions:

  • Given that there are already event proposals out there, wouldn’t it make sense to see how this one progresses before moving on to the others? This way, we’d be managing just one budget, could add it to the calendar, and as mentioned, streamline the voting process.
  • To clarify, you expect to spend a maximum of $600,000 on the events listed in the schedule, and the rest, assuming you receive $1,500,000, would be around $900,000, correct? Is this the amount set aside for future event proposals of this type? It might be an obvious question, but are these the figures you’re working with? Have you estimated how many events could be funded with the remaining amount?
  • It’s mentioned that any surplus will be refunded in full by the end of 2025, but could you specify in which currency it will be refunded? It’s not entirely clear, or maybe we missed something in the details.

The following reflects the views of L2BEAT’s governance team, composed of @krst and @Sinkas, and it’s based on the combined research, fact-checking, and ideation of the two.

After reviewing the proposal and discussing with Entropy and other delegates, we wanted to publicly share our feedback as well. We are overall supportive of creating a strategy for events, and below are some of our suggestions on how to improve the proposal in a way that would make us comfortable voting for it.

First and foremost, we’re supportive of having funds earmarked for events ahead of time. This will not only help expedite the execution of relevant proposals but also help define the budget for 2025 events, help us plan around it, and not blindly decide on a case-by-case basis.

We’d like Entropy to spearhead the effort to create a strategy for events, but we believe that the people involved should be from a) the Foundation, b) OffChain Labs, and c) the major protocols in Arbitrum.

We should set better KPIs for the events we organize so we can leverage them to the fullest of their value. For example, GovHack in Brussels, although a well-executed event, couldn’t capture 100% of its value potential. Arbitrum Foundation’s events (e.g. Shake Shack Takeover in ETHDenver and Arbitrum Day in EthCC) were based on their understanding of what’s needed and their vision of how to accomplish it. The Foundation and OCL are better positioned to understand ecosystem needs and more aligned with Arbitrum than the next person. The same applies to the major protocols and Orbit chains.

We believe that the Foundation, OCL major protocols, and Orbit chains should somehow be involved in the events, both in creation and attendance.

In general, when thinking about events and an events strategy, we should be thinking of how we can best utilize the Arbitrum Foundation and OCL to set the stage for DAO-sponsored events by creating a vision of what the events should be like. Instead of the DAO doing events next to events that the Foundation or OCL organized, we should be hosting an event alongside them - not ‘against’ each other.

Additionally, we believe that even though crypto-focused events are significant, we should be looking to attend events from adjacent industries (e.g., FinTech), like the FinTech Festival in Singapore. By doing this, we might be able to attract new potential users that aren’t already into web3. In those events, we envision an Arbitrum area where Arbitrum protocols could have their booth to present their protocols to visitors. Protocols should pay some amount to acquire their booth (to ensure commitment and business relevance of the initiative), with DAO subsidizing the total cost.

5 Likes

well… then in the extreme, this kinda begs the question:

should Arbitrum events be organized by the Arbitrum Foundation/OCL or should they be organized somehow by the Arbitrum DAO?

to my understanding the Arbitrum Foundation already organizes their events and has a budget for that, like they reported in their latest transparency report where they say they spent $5,262,845 USD in “Events, Marketing and Communications” from January 1st, 2024, to June 30th, 2024.

over that same period the Arbitrum DAO has voted to fund the organization of some events, and has spent maybe 10% of that Arbitrum’s Foundation amount I guess…

so are you guys arguing that the Arbitrum Foundation should also be in control of the amount of funds that the Arbitrum DAO spends on events?

is that what you mean when you say that

2 Likes

There’s nothing inherently wrong with this proposal; Arbitrum should have a presence at every major crypto event. However, before voting, I believe we need a more detailed breakdown of how the funds will be allocated.

2 Likes

Streamlining our Events planning and budgetary considerations is valuable, and we at Castle support initiatives that provide greater efficiency in the planning, allocation, and utilization of funds.

We recognize the importance of working on a general framework to avoid redundancies by establishing a budget for DAO events. At the same time, we believe the DAO members should have a voice in assessing which events should get funded.

We agree that the earlier event proposals submitted to the DAO should also be included in the budget allocated to this proposal; it makes sense to do so with the one-delegate gathering and the three ecosystem growth events outlined in the proposal.

At the same time, we recognize the importance of building local communities through local meetups, which could be more cost-effective.

In addition to the details outlined, we would also like to see reports on the performance of each organized event at a later date to review the effectiveness of this method of operation.

Hello everyone - we wanted to highlight the recent changes that were made to this proposal following community feedback.

Nice proposal for a relevant topic. A few questions:

  • Who will be responsible for verifying the correct use of funds when a) the event is handled by the quoted group, b) it is handled by a service provider?
  • ETH Denver initiative will be spearheaded by OCL? Will the funds for this coming from the budget of this proposal?

In short: While believing in the integrity of all involved, how do we ensure transparency on how the funds will be spent (previously, as the budget, and after the execution itself)

We support this because it provides a comprehensive strategy for Arbitrum DAO’s participation in key industry events. The combo of AF and OCL should hopefully signal events that align with the broader ecosystem goals,

The incorporation of measurable KPIs for each event ensures accountability and we are in favor of as well. We think the more interesting thing will be how and what determines the people that are sent to events like this.

The budget / numbers tossed around also seems reasonable to us

This to me is a bit tricky and should be accompanied by other stuff.
When we had the first, voted, govhack in ethcc, one thing i was struggling was understanding the budget, if it was in line or not.

By just talking with other delegates, with experience on medium/large events, I was able to get a sense check of budget being in the right range.

Saying this cause i think it could be easy for the contributor to set KPI that might be either non useful/relevant, or not easy to be understood by the general DAO, because maybe not a lot of people are expert in this matter.

TLDR: if someone proposes a budget for an event, and specific KPI, would be quite useful to have sense check of other experienced delegates/entities in this field about the proposed number making sense. Not sure how this could be even formalized in the proposal, or if it even needs to be formalized.

I, too, reading all these proposals, came to the idea that it is worth making our own conference, but it needs to be organized with a large involvement of sponsors-projects on Arbitrum.

1 Like

There was a lot of talk on the forum about how to convert ARB into stablecoins. Your proposal simply states that the funds will be converted into $1.5 million.
But if this is done in one transaction, the token value will clearly not be healthy. How do you plan to do this?

As for the essence of the proposal - this is a very good approach, to combine and plan in advance all the events for the next year.

Gauntlet is in favor of formalizing the DAO’s events strategy. It’s inefficient to have Arbitrum delegates review one-off sponsorships, and it would be best served by a committee and even better served with a pre-determined budget.

Some methodology around the specific events chosen would also be beneficial, or a decision matrix would help explain how these decisions were made. A balance of audience quality, alignment in programming, sponsorship cost, and localized cost of event production should be factors. For example, is outbound BD a priority over supporting and retaining existing Arbitrum builders? If not, Bitcoin 2025 may make less sense than another Ethereum-aligned event.

Similar to other programs, we’d expect KPIs regarding events strategy so we can measure both event SPs and sponsorships. A measurement for generated leads, attendees, measurable outcomes or partnerships, etc., would be helpful for the DAO. Even something as simple as qualitative feedback from the business-focused partners to the Arbitrum DAO (OCL/AF) will be hugely helpful for the DAO in measuring the ROI of events funding, especially if these KPIs can be normalized per dollar spent on an activation.

Again, we will point to Aera as a 0% fee and streamlined option for governance programs to diversify ARB to stables using minimized market-impact strategies. The Arbitrum Foundation has reviewed this strategy for DAO programs. It is being used by Questbook, ARDC, and ADPC. Gauntlet is happy to support Entropy in the setup of a vault for this Events program should a holistic treasury management program not be installed by program launch.

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Thank you to those that provided additional feedback and comments, responses to each can be found below. We plan to move this proposal to Snapshot on Thursday, October 10th.

jameskbh

Together the ADPC, Disruption Joe, and Entropy Advisors will be responsible for ensuring funds outlined for events involving the Foundation or OCL are used properly.

Regarding point b, this is a good call-out that the proposal doesn’t include specifics about oversight for events brought forward by an individual or service provider. We have updated the proposal with the following language:

There are plans for representation from both the Arbitrum Foundation and OCL teams at ETHDenver. The purpose of this proposal is to set aside funds for an events budget, part of which will be dedicated to bolstering the events managed by either party as they already have teams in place to execute most effectively. Compared to the DAO, these teams have a much better understanding of the Arbitrum brand, internal metrics, and dedicated employees creating event strategy. We believe it is more effective for the DAO, Foundation, and OCL to collaborate on events rather than compete, which is inline with feedback received from @krst above.

However, it is important to highlight that these funds will not entirely supplement the Foundation or OCL’s event budgets. Rather our priority is for Arbitrum events to have a bigger impact at high-profile industry conferences.

JoJo

You raise a very good point, but with event proposers still going to the DAO with requests, their costs and KPIs can be scrutinized by all delegates. Below is language from the proposal outlining this process:

Entropy does have team members with experience hosting events and there are quite a few other delegates with similar experience. We believe the DAO can rely on these individuals rather than standardizing a process in this proposal that may or may not apply to every event type/idea that arises.

cp0x

The ARB will be converted by the Foundation through its normal processes and at their discretion. Once the ARB has been converted into $1.5m of stablecoins, the remaining ARB will be returned to the DAO and the stablecoins sent to an MSS-controlled multi-sig. The flow of funds section has also been slightly updated to clarify this process.

Gauntlet

The specific events mentioned in the proposal were chosen based on conversations with OCL’s event team.

EthDenver and EthCC are two of the largest Ethereum-aligned events and ones that Arbitrum should obviously have a strong presence at to retain existing builders.

A delegate offsite at Token2049 was chosen primarily for its timing between EthDenver and EthCC. Dubai also serves a central point geographically for a majority of Arbitrum delegates who reside across the globe. Token2049 presented an appealing opportunity to host a dedicated delegate offsite alongside a conference that would not have an over-exhausting amount of side events and conflicts.

A few factors led to the inclusion of Bitcoin 2025. First, while the DAO is still not fully aligned on its own mission, vision, and key objectives, Orbit chain adoption and growth has been a consistently stated priority. Additionally, with there being several Bitcoin L2s utilizing the Orbit stack in the pipeline and the DAO voting to expand the Arbitrum Expansion Program to any chain, bringing the Arbitrum brand to Bitcoin 2025 felt like a strong BD opportunity. Bitcoin also serves as the primary asset that onboards new people into crypto, and positioning Arbitrum closer to Bitcoin scaling represents a compelling case to onboarding legitimately new users into our ecosystem/tech stack.

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